Ezra Furman announces hiatus from touring
American singer-songwriter Ezra Furman has announced a hiatus from touring. After the artist’s current scheduled tour dates, she will not perform outside of her residence in Boston, Massachusetts.
“After the upcoming UK shows (Aug. 27-Sep. 3), I’m going on an open-ended hiatus from touring,” Furman announced on social media. “No shows outside of my hometown of Boston, for an undecided amount of time. Could be a permanent change, could be different in a year, I just don’t know. There are no shows currently planned past September 3rd. (Tickets still available for Cardiff Aug 31!)”
“There are many reasons for this. The best way to summarize it is that I’ve been doing this exhausting and wonderful work for something like seventeen years now (!) and I am tired,” she writes. “Recent events including a popular explosion of transphobia, increasingly corporate-owned music venues, COVID-19, the demands of motherhood and some unsettling audience encounters have made it all the more difficult for me.”
Furman began touring with her former band, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, in 2006. After that group broke up in 2011, Furman continued to tour as a solo artist for the next decade, releasing six solo albums including her most recent, 2022’s All of Us Flames.
“Even without that stuff, any sort of touring is effing difficult. The pressure and the exhaustion are immense. It has a major impact on the body and mind and the structure of one’s life,” Furman writes. “Since I was a teenager (other than the ’20-’21 heavy Covid times) there has never been even a 6-month period of my life without touring. That’s because I love it and I have always loved it and always will. But it’s time for me to explore life without it, and follow my instincts of what’s necessary to take care of myself.”
“I will add, in case it’s not obvious: I’m not done with music and creativity. Art is not my career and it’s not my hobby; it’s a life path,” she says. “One of the pathways of my life and spirit. One reason not to tour is to spend more time clearing that pathway so I can freely walk it and see where it goes next.”
“ALSO! my bandmates are going to have more availability now,” she concluded. “They are absolutely phenomenal musicians. You should hire them for things. They’re some of the coolest, most talented, most reliable people I know. They also have their own musical projects which I love and you should pay attention to.”
Check out the official announcement down below.
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